Slashdot Mirror
Indie Game Developers See Big Opportunity
An anonymous reader writes "BusinessWeek Online is running a story on the new opportunities indie game developers are finding in the casual games space. They also have a Q&A with one of Microsoft's gaming gurus." From the article: "Until recently, the market for electronic games was mainly young, male, and diehard. These days, a bigger, more age-diverse group that increasingly includes and women is joining in the fun, spending anywhere from a few minutes a day to long stretches on online poker or games such as Bejewelled, Tetris, and The Sims. As more people sign up for high-speed Internet access (almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband), the gaming experience -- both for games playable online, such as Bejewelled, and CD- or DVD-ROM titles with an online component, like The Sims -- has become more appealing. Casual gamers now make up about 1% of the $20.5 billion game-software market."
Make distribution costs sufficiently close to zero. Make unit cost close to zero. Independent producers will grow like weeds.
Given your description, I think you meant, "Independent producers will grow, like, weed."
Here we go, I can see it now. Soon enough I'll have to wade through a sea of EMO kids trying to get my copy of HL3 or Doom 18, having my tastes in game critiqued and told how I should really be playing "Indie Games" because thats where the "real talent" is.
Fractured Element
How can someone spell Tetris wrong three times in a row?!
C17H21NO4
How can someone spell Tetris wrong three times in a row?
I don't know, but I suspect that had it been spelled incorrectly a fourth time, there would have been some bonus points awarded.
We need to audition for the definitive "You may be eaten by a Grue" voice.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
"I have a Ms. Pacman machine (currently in disrepair unfortunately). It's been out since 1982 and it's just as much fun today as it was then."
If it's in disrepair now, and was 'out' in 1982, of course it's the same amount of fun -- it doesn't work now and it didn't work then!
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
You: "Open the door."
Phone: "The door opens. Stepping inside, you see a large water tank, possibly the cooling chamber for the reactor you were sent to destroy."
You: "Place the plastic explosives on the nuclear reactor coolant controller."
Whumpf! "Hey, what the heck? Who are you guys? Why did you tackle me? What's going on?
Secret Police: "By authority of the Terrorist Wartime Powers Act, I'm taking you in! But before I start doing particularly nasty stuff to you, you'd better tell me: who were you talking to?!!